SCF News

sunburst chef & farmer in the news

Sunburst Chef & Farmer pairs aquaponics, microgreens

Charles Hudson and Sally Eason huddle over a tray of microgreens, meticulously snipping shoots of red-veined sorrel and amaranth with tiny stainless steel scissors. Wearing crisp white coats and disposable gloves, they could be in the lab at some research institution. Instead, they’re in the aquaponics greenhouse at Sunburst Chef & Farmer in Leicester, surrounded by leafy greens, 60 tilapia and 10,000 gallons of water.

Sunburst offshoot brings aquaponics to West Asheville

ASHEVILLE - A 13,800-square-foot greenhouse in a neighborhood off Leicester Highway seems an unlikely place to find a school of tilapia. But the fish will soon serve as a living linchpin of commercial revitalization at Smith Mill Works, a 27-acre West Asheville property in a process of financial and environmental recovery since its original industry, farming, faded 15 years ago.Sunburst Chef and Farmer, the aquaponics offshoot project by Sally Eason of Canton's Sunburst Trout Farms, chef Charles Hudson and others, has leased a greenhouse on the property with plans to build an aquaponics farm there.